I am back with another candid conversation and I will be talking to Elias Sfeir this time around. Read the full conversation below.
I am super excited to introduce our guest today, Elias Sfeir.
Elias is a big name within the jailbreak community and has developed a lot of popular free and paid Cydia tweaks such as Social Downloader, No2Theft, Youtube Pro and much more.
Since some people were doubting the authenticity of my conversations with developers, you can check out Elias’ official Twitter handle.
Table of Contents
Q1. How and when did you get started with tweak development?
A. I started developing tweaks back in 2013.
When a friend of mine started, I got tempted to start also he helped through the basics and I loved the fact that people use and enjoy something I created that can make their life easier and better.
Q2. Social Downloader is a very popular jailbreak tweak. What made you develop it and how much did it take to finish it up?
A. Social Downloader was a project I wanted to create a long time ago due to the fact that social media apps, especially Youtube, don’t allow us to download videos, stories or photos, which I find very odd.
I made the tweak in order to actually use myself and didn’t really care about the profit so much.
I use Social Downloader on daily basis and it became very popular because every one of us scrolls through Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and finds something cool to save it and share it with someone.
Social apps don’t allow us to do that and therefore I created Social Downloader to help myself and other users.
Q3. Developers often think they do not make enough with their tweaks. Do you believe that tweak developers deserve more?
A. We surely don’t make enough from our tweaks due to the fact that 85% of the jailbreak community are pirates, which makes me sad.
This is why several experienced jailbreak developers quit the jailbreak scene (such as Filippo Bigarella aka filippobiga, the developer behind the famous Springtomize tweak).
Another reason is that the jailbreak scene is slowly d, unfortunately. The last jailbreak-able firmware was iOS 10.2 and yalu102 jailbreak itself is very buggy.
Combine that with the fact the 85% of users don’t bother buying a tweak to support us, you will get a very bad revenue.
Q4. Are you currently working on any new project or tweak?
A. I am currently working on updating Social Downloader as some apps are still not compatible, currently. I will also start to work on apps for the official App Store.
Q5. Do you own a jailbroken device? If yes, what are your favorite Cydia tweaks and App Store apps?
A. Yes, I have a jailbroken iPhone 6s running iOS 10.2.
My favorite tweaks are –
- Watusi
- Social Downloader (mine)
- CallPlus (mine)
- Cylinder
- Anemone
- CallBar
- GifRoll
- and of course, the one and only, Activator
Q6. Apple is tightening the security noose with each firmware update. Do you think iOS 11 and iPhone X will ever be jailbroken?
A. Eventually, there will be a jailbreak but it will take some time. With each iOS update, the time it takes to jailbreak is getting longer and longer.
We will never see an untethered jailbreak every time since the bugs and exploits found are very small, rare and important so developerss will not burn them.
Also, the community is full of kids that are always harassing the developers, which makes them leave the scene. Some people are also crazy enough to threaten developers for not releasing a jailbreak.
Q7. What can the jailbreak community expect from you in the future?
A. To be honest, I always say that I want to quit the jailbreak community and move to the App Store.
However, I always find myself coming back because developing for Cydia is harder and more challenging but awesome due to the fact that we can do whatever we want to.
By using private frameworks we can achieve awesome things like I did with No2Theft! Expect a version of Social Downloader for the AppStore ;).
That’s it for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Elias. As always, don’t forget to follow Elias on Twitter for the latest tweak updates and releases.
For more behind-the-scenes convos with hackers and jailbreak developers, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
